


Crash

by lunabelle



Series: AU One-Shot Collection [8]
Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Car Accidents, F/M, Heavy Angst, Hospitalization, Injury, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 18:14:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11697168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunabelle/pseuds/lunabelle
Summary: When Andy and April are in an accident, April is in serious condition.  Andy tries his best to hold it together, but the thought of losing her is never far from his mind, and he'll do everything he can to stay by her side.





	Crash

**Author's Note:**

> Requested anonymously on tumblr

_“April? April!”_

Andy’s hands fumbled as he tried to grasp the car door handle. Was it supposed to be on its side like that? No, surely it wasn’t. Something wasn’t right.

There was smoke coming from the engine, everything seemed squished and tiny. It reminded him of when he would outgrow a pair of sneakers as a kid and his feet needed more room.

_“April!”_

There was an empty passenger seat beside him, a place where his wife should have been sitting. Now, he was lying on his side in a smoking car, there was glass everywhere, and a hole in the windshield the size of a…well, now that he looked there wasn’t a windshield anymore.

Andy could hear people screaming, could hear the sound of sirens in the distance. His forehead felt warm and sticky, and when he pulled away his hand, his fingers were covered in blood.

_Blood?_

The more he realized where he was, the more he noticed he was on his side, stuck in the carseat, held in place by his seatbelt. But where was April?

_“April!”_

“Sir?” someone called out to him. “Can you hear me?”

“Where’s my wife?” he asked, his voice rough as he coughed though his words.

“We’re going to get you out of there—“

“No, you don’t understand,” he pleaded, trying to unclasp the belt, even though he was stuck and he knew it. “I need to find her. She was right next to me—“

“Please hold still for a moment, okay?”

Someone, a paramedic maybe, clipped the seatbelt with a giant pair of…somethings. Still, Andy couldn’t tell. Hands grabbed at him, trying to pull him free of the smoking wreckage of what was once their car. His hands and legs felt numb.

“Can you stand?”

“Do you know your name, Sir?”

“Do you know what happened”?

_“April?”_

Andy’s legs felt like jelly, and his brain was spinning. He couldn’t see straight, but the flash of yellow from off the side of the road was enough to make his heart stop.

_Yellow, like her cardigan._

“April!”

He ran to her, pushing past the EMTs and paramedics, the bystanders who were gasping at the sight before him, past the broken stop sign that should have alerted the other driver, and crouched down beside his wife. She was covered in cuts, blood was soaking her clothing, and she was limp in his arms.

“Honey?” he choked on his words, the tears already starting to fall. “Babe? It’s me! Please…wake up, okay?”

The medics surrounded him, trying to pull April from his arms, but he was frozen and blinded by the sight of her there, helpless and hurt. He tried to push them away. He didn’t want them touching her…

“We’re going to take you both to a hospital,” a voice said to his left. “Sir, we need to go now. Your wife needs medical attention immediately—“

“She’s gonna be okay?” he sobbed a little, his hands never leaving hers, even as she was securely strapped to a gurney and put in the back of an ambulance. “Right?”

“We can’t make any promises Sir, but we’re going to do our best.”

“I need…” his head was spinning again. “I…can’t leave her—“

“We’re taking you both to the hospital,” a woman told him, gently taking him by the elbow and leading him out of the ambulance.

“Why can’t I go with her?” he asked, watching as they closed the doors. “I need to go with her!” his voice was rising, and even as the siren sounded and the vehicle drove away, Andy pushed against the medic and tried to follow. His legs gave out after five steps, and he passed out.

 

_“Can you hear me?”_

Andy could hear someone. He didn’t recognize the voice. It was a man’s, and it was unfamiliar to him. When he opened his eyes, he knew right away that he was in a hospital bed.

His body ached, but at first try he could wiggle his hands and feet, his fingers and toes, and he could sit up without a problem.

“Where’s April?” he asked immediately. There was an empty bed beside him, but in the room it was just him and the doctor who was checking his pulse. “What happened to her? Where is she?”

“Your wife is in surgery,” the doctor said softly, releasing Andy’s wrist and scribbling some notes on a chart. “She suffered a broken shoulder and several ribs, and she has a major concussion.”

“I need to see her,” Andy said, as he swung his legs over the side of the bed. The more he moved, the more he realized he was pretty much unharmed aside from the occasional scratch or bruise.

“I’m afraid you’ll have to wait,” the doctor said. “She should be done in a couple of hours.”

“You don’t understand,” Andy said. “She needs me there! She—she can’t be alone, okay?”

“Mr. Dwyer, we can’t let you into the operating room if that’s what you’re asking…”

“No, it’s not—it’s—“ his head was starting to hurt now. “Please?”

“I promise, she’ll be out in a couple of hours and you can see her then. Her shoulder bone was completely shattered…she’s lucky she survived. She went right through the windshield.”

Andy felt like he was going to throw up. His forehead still ached, and as he reached up, he felt a heavy bandage above his eyebrow. 

“We had to stitch you up,” the doctor told him. “You’ve got some pretty serious scrapes, but miraculously nothing was broken.”

“Where am I?” Andy asked, taking a breath to compose himself.

“This is the Old Eagleton Sacred Heart Hospital,” the doctor told him, writing more things down. “It was the closest hospital to the accident site.”

Things were slowly starting to make more sense now. He remembered that they were driving home from Old Eagleton…they had just come back from getting food…

“Where’s the car?”

“I’m afraid your car was totaled,” the doctor said. “The other car did too much damage.”

“I…”

They had been listening to music and the CD had fallen on the floor…April had unhooked her seat belt to reach down and find it…

“Mr. Dwyer, is there someone we can call for you?”

Andy nodded slowly, reaching into his pocket for a cell phone that wasn’t there. He felt around, but there was nothing. No phone, no wallet, nothing at all.

“I…can’t find my stuff,” he said softly.

“Ah,” the doctor—Andy checked his name tag, and he could make out the name Stevens—reached over and held up a clear plastic bag. “Here are the items we recovered at the crash site. I’m assuming your phone is in here?”

It was. Along with his wallet, April’s phone, and—his heart clenched in his chest—her wedding ring. It wasn’t supposed to be in this bag, it was supposed to be on her finger…

“Please,” he whispered. “You need to make sure my wife is okay. That’s all I’m asking you, okay? No, I’m begging you. Do whatever you need to do to make sure she’s okay.”

 

He called Leslie. He didn’t know who else to call. She was there in less than a half hour, probably breaking all kinds of traffic laws in the process. When she saw him, she hugged him, and for a moment Andy didn’t want to let go.

“Andy,” she gripped him tight, before breaking away to look at him. “Oh my God, your face—“

“They’re just scratches, Leslie,” he said, feeling the bandage.

“I can’t believe this happened,” she nearly cried. “Have you—“ she looked around. “—any news about April?”

He shook his head sadly.

She took a deep breath and held both his hands. “Okay. We’re gonna be okay. _You’re_ gonna be okay. Ben’s on his way, and Ron is too. We’re gonna wait here with you until she’s out of surgery, all right?”

He nodded. It was all he could do to keep from crying, and he didn’t want to do that in front of Leslie. “I…I can’t stand sitting here while she’s in there, Leslie,” he said softly. “I can’t…”

Leslie nodded solemnly, leading him to the couch in the corner of his hospital room. “What did they say exactly? Tell me what happened.”

“They…” he took a deep, steadying breath. “They told me she broke her shoulder pretty bad, and she…she has like a concussion or something…and her ribs. Her ribs are broken.”

“All of them?” Leslie’s eyes widened.

“No! Not all of them,” he closed his eyes tight, trying to remember. “a few of them, though. Oh my God, Leslie…I can’t lose her.” He was starting to break down, and he couldn’t help it. “I can’t lose her!”

“Shh,” Leslie pulled him into a hug, and Andy rested his forehead against her shoulder while he quietly sobbed. “You’re not gonna lose her, okay? Everything is gonna be fine, Andy. She’s gonna get fixed up, and she’ll be good as new. Okay? I promise.”

 

The pain medicine was making him drowsy. He didn’t want to sleep, as much as the doctors told him he should. He wanted to be awake for when April was out of surgery. He _needed_ to be.

Ron brought him some food to eat, because he said the hospital “only served swill,” while Ben brought him coffee. He wanted neither. He just wanted April.

“Andy, you really should rest,” Leslie said gently, as Andy paced the room. “I promise, we’ll wake you when April gets out.”

“No,” he said. “I need to be awake. I can’t be sleeping. What if she needs me?”

“Son, we wouldn’t let you miss that,” Ron said kindly.

“I can’t,” he said, shaking his head. The exhaustion was getting to him. He wanted so badly to lie down, but he wouldn’t. Not until he knew his wife was okay. “What’s taking so long?” It had been more than two hours now, and still no news.

“I bet they’re just being thorough,” Ben suggested. “I’m sure she’s fine.”

Before Andy could reply, that same Dr. Stevens or whoever, entered the room. Andy stopped pacing and stood at attention, his eyes wide and as alert as he could manage.

“Mr. Dwyer,” he said. “Your wife is out of surgery.”

 _“Thank goodness,”_ Leslie muttered from behind him.

“She’s still in intensive care—“

“I want to go see her now,” Andy said immediately. “Can you take me to her, please?”

“I’m afraid not,” Dr. Stevens said slowly. “She needs a little time to recover. Her condition was more complicated than we originally anticipated. The ICU is not a place for visitors to hang around—“

“He’s not a visitor, he’s her husband,” Ron stood up, his voice low and firm. “He has every right to see her.”

“I’m afraid that’s not our policy,” the doctor said. “She needs to be monitored for an additional few hours in case of infection, and then you’ll be permitted to visit her.”

“What kind of stupid Eagletonian place is this?” Leslie burst out, standing up suddenly and waving her arm around.

“Ma’am—“

“No,” Andy shook his head. “You told me I could see her after surgery. Where is she?”

The doctor sighed, looking defeated. “Fine. You can see her for five minutes. That’s all, and then you need to wait. She’s unconscious, she’s recovering from major surgery, and she needs to rest. She can’t come into any contact with anyone who might give her the slightest infection until the three hours are up.”

“Fine,” Andy nodded. “Just take me to my wife.”

 

He thought he could prepare himself for seeing her like this, but Andy had never been more wrong.

April was tiny in a sea of hospital clothes and bedsheets. Wires surrounded her, monitoring her heart, her breathing, and who knew what else. The steady beep of the machine was loud in his ears, and Andy broke down on the spot.

He reached out to hold her hand, and it was cold. He expected nothing less…it was his job to warm it up.

“Hey cookie,” he whispered, trying to smile. “It’s me. It’s Andy.”

She lay there still, her chest rising and falling steadily.

“I just want to let you know everything is gonna be fine,” he gently lifted her hand to his lips. “Okay? I promise. I’m gonna be right here when you get up.”

Her shoulder was wrapped, and her forehead had a bandage similar to his. He didn’t try to lift the sheets for fear of hurting her.

“I love you so much,” he whispered, as his voice shook. As he spoke, the door opened and a nurse was on her way in to lead him out. “So much, honey—“

“You can come back soon,” the nurse told him kindly, taking him by the arm. “Okay? I'll be in and out. She'll never be alone, I promise.”

“So much,” he repeated, never taking his eyes away from April as he walked backwards out of the room.

The door closed with an angry snap, and Andy rested his forehead against it, his palms flat against the cool metal. He’d never cried so much in such a short time span than he did that day.

Ron was there, and Andy didn’t even realize it until he felt the familiar, firm hand on his shoulder.

“C’mon son,” he said, his voice gruff. “You should rest up a bit. April will need you to be in top shape when she wakes up.”

 

Andy did eventually fall asleep. He didn’t want to, and he fought it hard. He started to wonder whether or not the doctors slipped him something strong the next time he took his pain medicine, because the last thing he remembered was taking the two little pills, talking to Leslie about something, and closing his eyes.

As soon as he was up, he fumbled with the bedsheets until he was able to stand.

“Andy,” Leslie looked up from her magazine. She must have stayed with him the entire time. “Where are you going?”

“To see April,” he said, slipping his feet into his sneakers. “It’s been three hours, right?”

“Well, yeah, but they haven’t come to get us yet—“

“They said three hours.”

“Andy—“

He had his hand on the door, but it opened before he could pull the handle. Dr. Stevens walked in and greeted them all.

“How are you feeling Andy?” he asked.

“Fine,” Andy said. “I just want to see my wife, now.”

“You can see her,” the doctor nodded. “She’s still out, but you and your friends are welcome to come in now.”

“You go Andy,” Leslie said gently. “We’ll visit after.”

Andy didn’t need telling twice. He left the room, walking as fast as he could through the halls without actually running. He was shocked he could even remember her room number at this point, but it wasn’t long before he was pushing her door open and approaching her bedside. She looked just the same as before. 

“Hi honey,” he said, reaching for her hand. “I’m back,” he kissed her cold knuckles. “They told me your surgery went well. You just need to wake up, okay?”

He sat there, determined to keep watch until she was awake. Nurses flitted in and out of the room to check April’s stats, change her IV, reapply her bandages, and take notes on their charts every hour. Andy still hadn’t eaten anything, even when his friends had joined him and left again, bring food in between that merely sat on the bed tray untouched.

Andy had all but fallen asleep when he felt a twitch in his hand. He looked up, and April’s eyes were open. Bleary, barely wide enough to see anything, her lids fluttered once, twice, before she closed them again and groaned.

“Honey?” he shot up, inching the chair closer. “Baby? Can you hear me?”

Slowly, she nodded her head, meeting his gaze in a weak stare. Andy immediately started to cry again.

April pulled at his hand a little, her eyes trying to tell him what she was too weak to say. Whatever painkillers she was on, Andy had to guess they were pretty strong.

“I love you so much,” he whispered, rubbing his thumb across her knuckles. “You’re gonna be okay. I’m here,” he said, adjusting her sheets. “I’m not leaving again, so just rest.”

She nodded again, closing her eyes. Almost instantaneously, the beeping on the machines started to speed up, loud and terrifying in Andy’s ears. He looked at April, and she was breathing quickly—too quickly—and her face had lost the little color she had until she was white as a ghost.

“April?” he stood, looking everywhere but not sure what to do. “April!”

She was shivering violently, and when Andy grabbed her hand it was sweaty and burning hot. Without thinking, he yelled for someone, punching the alert button with so much force he nearly broke it.

Seconds later, the room was swarming with nurses and doctors.

“Andy, you need to leave—“

“No, I’m not leaving!” he yelled, holding the side of her bed rail. “What’s wrong with her?”

Another doctor was checking her heart, while a second was placing an oxygen mask over her face as she continued to breathe as though she was hyperventilating. For a moment, one quick, horrifying moment, April opened her eyes and met his, and she looked absolutely terrified.

“April—“ Andy moved forward to reach for her, but a third person, a heavier, taller male nurse was pulling him out of the room. “No, no, no!” he yelled. “Don’t fucking take me out—she needs me! Hey! Stop! APRIL!” he called her, watched as her horrified eyes followed him out of the room, and it was the last thing he saw before they crowded around her bed and slammed the door in his face.

Andy liked to think of himself as a calm person, but in that moment he completely lost it. He started pounding on the door with his fists as hard as he could. He was yelling, screaming at them to let him in. He called for his wife, and he had no idea if she could hear him or not but the other occupants of the ICU certainly could. People poked their heads out of doors to admonish him, to stare at him, to whisper about him, until several security officers had been called to put a stop to the commotion.

Luckily for Andy, Leslie and Ron were on their way back to visit April at that very moment. They both stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Andy being handcuffed.

“Officer,” Ron said loudly. “What’s the meaning of this?”

Andy was breathing hard, red faced, on his knees, while the guard held him down by his shoulder.

“Oh my God, Andy!” Leslie hurried forward, until a second guard tried to block her. “Hey! Why the hell is he in handcuffs?” she asked.

“Release this man,” Ron demanded. “Release him right now, or I’ll call your superior officer and tell them you are man-handling a patient.”

“This man was causing a disturbance,” the officer said. “We received several complaints about him physically trying to break in this door, yelling and screaming, pounding on it with his fists…”

“This is the ICU,” a doctor had emerged from April’s room, looking harassed. “We have patients in very serious conditions on this floor, and we don’t need people causing such a scene.” She looked from Andy to the officers, to Leslie and Ron. “His wife is in there,” the doctor said softly. “He’s a patient here himself at the moment. Please let him go.”

Ron and Leslie stood back and watched as Andy was released. Ron helped him up, patting him on the back as Andy took deep, steadying breaths.

“What happened?” Leslie asked softly.

“It’s April—“ he breathed. “She—she—I don’t know what happened, but they kicked me out.” He stared at the doctor with daggers in his eyes. “Tell me what’s wrong with my wife. Why can’t I go in there?”

“She has sepsis,” the doctor explained. “Blood poisoning caused by an infection at the injury site. It happens quiet often when there’s a serious infection, but we were able to catch it before she went into shock. She’s on antibiotics, now.”

Andy felt lightheaded. Behind him, he could hear Ron grumble something to Leslie, and the blonde woman gently took Andy by the elbow.

“Andy,” Leslie said slowly. “Have you eaten anything today?”

Slowly, Andy shook his head.

“Okay son,” Ron said, putting a steady hand on his shoulder. “You come with me. Leslie is going to wait here with April, and you’re going to eat something. Then, we’ll come back, okay?”

“No,” Andy said angrily. “I want to stay here.”

“You need to eat,” Ron said firmly. “If you won’t eat, I’ll have no problem taking that security officer’s side if you decide to make a fuss like that again. I’m not saying you were totally wrong, but you certainly weren’t right.”

“April will be fine,” the doctor said kindly. “Dr. Stevens is in there with her right now, and she’ll be ready for you to visit her as soon as you’re feeling better.”

Andy sighed. What choice did he have? “Fine,” he said, facing Ron. “Let’s go.”

 

“Try to eat something,” Ron said, pushing the cheeseburger across the lobby table toward Andy.

“I don’t want to eat anymore.”

“If by ‘anymore,’ do you mean more than one bite?” Ron asked, sipping his fountain drink though a straw. “If so, than you need to eat more.”

“Ron,” Andy leaned forward, his face in his hands. “Why can’t you just let me go? I need to get back to April!”

“Son, you can’t help your wife if you can’t help yourself,” he said firmly. “You can’t help yourself on an empty stomach. It does things to your mind. Now eat.”

Like a scolded child, Andy grudgingly picked up the burger and took a few bites. He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but his stomach did feel better. His body was sore from both the car accident and the fit he took in the ICU, but food definitely dulled the pain a little.

“What if she gets worse,” Andy said quietly, between bites.

“She won’t.”

“How do you know?” Andy asked.

“I just know.”

Andy stared at his food, his eyebrows pinched together in frustration. Suddenly, it tasted dull to him. “Why did this happen?”

“Sorry?” Ron looked up from his own burger.

“I said, why did this happen?”

“The police officer told us the stop sign wasn’t up—“

“It should have been me,” Andy said miserably. “I should be in there, not April.”

“Andy—“

“Why do I get to walk away from this with a few fucking scratches? My wife is in there! She’s hurt, she’s sick, her whole shoulder blade was shattered—“ he felt those annoying tears again, but he was angry too. It made for an odd feeling. “She wasn't wearing a seatbelt, Ron… She took it off for a second to look for a stupid CD that I dropped. This is my fault.”

The older man watched as Andy broke down in front of him. They sat in the cafeteria, in a secluded area off to the side for privacy. Andy knew Ron wasn’t good with emotions, but the strong hand Andy felt pat his shoulder was as good as words.

“You want to go back now?” Ron asked quietly.

Andy nodded. Together, they stood. Ron cleared their lunch away and walked with Andy back to the ICU.

 

Leslie was seated in the chair next to April’s bed. She looked up when she saw them both enter.

“Hey!” she said cheerily. “Andy, do you feel a little better at least?”

“Yeah,” he mumbled, never taking his eyes off his sleeping wife.

“Come on Leslie,” Ron said. “Let’s give them some privacy.”

“You sure—?”

Ron nodded without a word, waiting for Leslie to follow him to the door. He closed it behind them, giving Andy one last pointed look before it snapped shut.

“Hey,” Andy said, reaching for April’s hand. “I’m back, babe,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry about that…that whole thing from before…um…” he sighed. “I didn’t mean to lose my temper out there and get kicked out. I just got so scared and…and they wouldn’t let me stay.”

April’s chest rose as she took a deep, heavy breath. Most of her face was still obscured by the large oxygen mask.

Andy briefly watched the IV bag slowly dripping beside the bed. His eyes followed the thin tube, all the way to the needle in her arm, then to the monitor on her finger.

“I’m so sorry this happened to you, babe,” he sighed. “I wish…this…it should have been me.”

He hated the person who crashed into them. Hated them with everything he had, everything he felt. He knew it wasn’t their fault, but from what the medics told him after all was said and done, the person in the other car walked away with nothing but a few scratches and a demolished SUV. So yes, Andy hated them, because his wife was lying here like this and they were probably home with their family. 

“I love you,” he said softly. He knew she could hear him. She had to.

The door opened slowly, and the same female doctor from earlier who’d spoken to them outside the room stepped in.

“Andy?”

“Yeah?” Andy wiped at his eyes.

“How are you doing?”

He shrugged.

“I didn’t get to introduce myself earlier. I’m Dr. Johnson. I’m on Dr. Stevens’ team.”

“Hey,” he said dully.

“Since you managed to walk away from the accident with nothing but some stitches,” she said, walking up to April and checking her stats. “You’re going to be discharged in an hour.”

“I’m not leaving,” he said immediately.

“You don’t have to,” she assured him. “But that just means you’ll no longer be a patient, but a visitor.”

Andy didn’t respond. Nothing he said would matter, anyway. Unless they told him they had a magic potion to make April all better, he didn’t want to hear anything.

“Your wife is strong, Andy,” Dr. Johnson said.

“I know she is,” Andy said. “She’s the strongest person in the world.”

“I know she’s hurt badly, but she’s still pulling through. She’s fighting the infection, and even though it’s slow, she’s recovering.”

“She’s going to be okay, right?” he asked, looking up at the other woman. “When she wakes up, can she come home?”

“I’m afraid not for a little while,” Dr. Johnson said. “She’s got a long road ahead of her. Once she’s strong enough to get up, she’s got weeks of physical therapy.”

“That’ll make her better?” he asked hopefully.

“It’s going to help her. Have you ever broken a bone before, Andy?”

Andy snorted. “Yeah, lots…”

“Well, you know what I mean, then.”

Andy watched as she checked the IV tube and clicked some notes on the computer by the door. She gave him one final wave, assured him she’d be back to check on April soon, and left.

 

Andy wasn’t sure when it was that he’d fallen asleep. One minute he was watching his wife, the next he’d woken up with his head against the side of the bed. He thought he’d heard something, maybe a sound. He must have been imagining it…

Then he heard it again. A quiet groan, almost a sigh. Immediately, he sat up and looked at April. She was awake, her eyes open and searching the room.

“April?” he smiled. “Honey?”

With a shaky hand, she reached up to move the oxygen mask off her face.

“Baby, it’s okay,” he said, trying to help her. “I’ve got it.”

“Andy,” she whispered, her voice hoarse.

In that moment, hearing her voice was the best thing in the world.

“Hey,” he smiled, taking her hand. “How you feeling?”

Her throat was so dry, she struggled to find the words. Immediately, Andy poured her some water from the bedside jug and held the straw to her mouth.

“Take your time,” he said gently.

She gave him a weak smile. “I’m so tired…”

“I know,” Andy nodded. “It’s okay. I know I said I wasn’t leaving last time, and then I did…they kicked me out, but I swear babe. I’m not going anywhere now.”

“What happened to you?” she asked, pointing to his bandaged forehead.

“This?” he pointed to himself. “Nothing, just some stupid stitches.”

“You…um,” she squeezed her eyes shut, as though she was trying to remember how to speak. “You hurt?”

“No,” Andy shook his head. “I’m fine, I promise.”

“Can you come up here?” she gestured to the small spot next to her on the bed.

As much as he’d love to cuddle his wife right then, he knew the doctors would probably never allow him to get into the bed with her. She was hooked up to so much stuff.

“Babe—“

“Please?” she whispered.

Andy took a deep breath, kicked off his sneakers, and stood. Slowly, and more carefully than he’d ever moved in his entire life, he managed to fit into the empty spot beside April. He turned on his side to make more room, pulling the blanket over her.

“Thanks,” she sighed, staring at him with heavy eyes. She reached for his hand and squeezed.

Andy fell asleep almost immediately. He stayed there for hours, not budging, even when the doctors came to check on April. They told him that as long as he wasn’t making her uncomfortable, he could stay.

Within three hours of Andy lying next to her, her fever went down completely. Her body temperature returned to normal, her sweaty skin felt drier again and some of her color came back. Some, not all, because her doctors said she was still incredibly weak from the surgery.

Andy talked to her while she was awake, telling her all kinds of funny stories and jokes to make her smile. He promised that Ben and Leslie were looking after Champion, so she didn’t have to worry about him while they were stuck here.

He talked about how he almost got arrested for trying to break into her room, and how he’d do it again in a heartbeat if the situation repeated itself.

April talked a little, but mostly just watched him with a tired smile and sleepy eyes. Sometimes she’d doze off in the middle of it all and Andy would let her rest, but that was okay. They had plenty of time to talk. She was going to be okay. They’d have years…and for that, Andy was eternally grateful.


End file.
